Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-27
WILL TIT BENEFIT NEW HAvENa

buck,s Hands Can Successfully Com
 pete With the Consolidated-Some
 Interesting Facts Given by n Gentle
 man Acquainted With the Situation
 The Consolidated to Build an EXten-
 sion of the Naugatuck From Derby to This City Via the WOodmont Route-Passenger and Freight Rates to be Very Low over Their Line Com pared With the Starbuck Rates.
 A gentleman who is well acquainted with the situation made some interesting state ments yesterday afternoon to COURIER re- porter about the Derby, it's future, it's pro posed extension and benefits, if any, that New Haven will receive now that it is in the hands of the Starbuck-Bostwick combina- tion.
 :'The proposition of William H. Starbuck and President Bostwick of the New Eng land, ," said he, lis to extend the Little Der by to Hawleyville and the Shepaug to Win sted and thereby making parallel to the Naugatuek and the proposed parallel will bring the trade of the Naugatuck valley towns into New Haven by that route. Mir. Starbuck says that he will when his plan is carried out be able to give the Naugatuck all the points in competition it could desire. Now to begin with, that railroad, if the ex- tensions are ever made to Hawleyville, would no more be parallel to the Naugatuck road from Winsted to New Haven than the exten-
 sion of the Derby to Hawleyville and then by the New England to Brewster's and via the New York City and Northern road to York would be an effective parallel to the present New York and New Haven road.
 ''It would be like attempting to parallel one side of square by going around the other three sides, as an examination of railroad map will readily show.
 "I can give you some cold facts which the New Haven public as yet have not become acquainted with. The distance from Win- sted to New Haven by the present line is 57 miles. The distance from Winsted to New Haven by the Shepaug. Derby and proposed extension will be not less than " miles. The grades of the proposed Shepaug and Derby ex- tension crossing backwards and forwards over the hills of Litchfeld and Fairfield counties are exceedingly worse than those of the Naugatuck road.
 "With Naugatuck branch track by the Consolidated road from Derby to New Haven
 over the proposed Woodmont route the grade would be much better than the present Der by. This extension will be built within a
 few months according to the statements of President Clark and Vice-President Reed of the Consolidated.
 "The fare from Winsted to New Haven will then be only $1.14 by the Consolidated road route. The Shepaug and the Derby have al ways been the highest priced roads in their charges for freight and fare ofany in the State, and these roads have barely existed even at these high rates. The Derby, as is well known, was not able to pay the interest
 on it's second mortgage bonds until the pool
 ing contract was formed with the Nauga-
 tuck. When it is operated as is proposed in
 opposition to the Consolidated, it is not to
 !, &I,r
 benefits of the pooling contract The board
 of finance, in the examination made last spring, found that the proposed extension of the Derby to the Housatonic val ley went through a country where there is neither population, business would be no local business to help support the extension, and therefore the Derby could not be expected to make lower rates than heretofore. The Derby has charged on an average over three cents mile for passen- gers. The Shepaug charges an average of four cents mile. If the present rates over the Shepaug and Derby were not increased and they were able to operate the extension through the sterile, unpopulated country for
 the same rates of fare at present the rates of fare from Winsted to New Haven by the Derby -Shepaug combination will be $2 79. any of the merchants of New Haven will have large increase of business from people who prefer to pay $2 78 for the priv ilege of riding over the Shepaug and Derby rather than SLY over the Naugatuck and Consolidated. A rivalry between the two so-caled parallel lines from Winsted to New Haven would only destroy the Shepaug com bination. It has always been claimed that the Naugatuck freight rates were high, and yet they have never been as high as the She- paug and Derby. The average rate of freight per ton per mile last year was 5.94 per cent.
 by the Derby; $40 per cent. by the Shepaug, against ATT by the Naugatuck and 2 per cent by the Consolidated.
 '.1t would seem from these figures that New Haven cannot expect improved freight rates by the Derby-Shepaug combination as against the Consolidated and Naugatuck.
 "When the traveller by the Shepaug, wheth- CT he comes from Litchfeld, Torrington or Winsted reaches Hawleyville, he is only twen- ty-three miles from Bridgeport and it is sev- eral miles nearer that city than it can possi- bly be to New Haven and with time and dis tance against New Haven, the merchants of this city will not be able to carry on a suc- cessful competition with the brother mer- chants of Bridgeport for the trade of that part of Litchield and Fairfield counties. The only portion of Litch- field county that the New Haven | merchants can successfully seek, having time and distance in their favor, is the population and business which lies in the Naugatuck ! valley and which comes over the present ' Naugatuck road as far as Derby. The tray elers coming from that valley when they ar ! rive at Derby are four miles nearer New Haven than Bridgeport by rail, and if direct trains can be brought from that valley into New Haven the trade of that valley can be | reasonably expected.
 'I will give you the population of the | twelve towns with which New Haven will have direct railroad connection by the Nau gatuck: Winchester, ,142; Torrington, 2, ,327; Plymouth, 2,35O; Litchfeld, 3:41O; Harwin- 1 ton, 1,O16; Thomaston, 3,225; Waterbury, 2O,27O; Watertown, 1897; Naugatuck, A. ETA; Seymour, 2,318; Beacon Falls, 379; Derby, II $50. The totalpopulation of these ! towns is 59, ,259. It is estimated by the busi- | ness men of that valley that three-fourths of | that trade now goes to Bridgeport and be- yond rather than to New Haven, and largely because there are no direct trains running to | New Haven over the Naugatuck.
 "The population of the eight towns which | have not now direct railroad connection with l New Haven, but which would obtain it if the Shepaug-Derby extension is completed, is: ! Washington, ,59O; Warren, 639; Morris, 6s7; l 4,013; Huntington, 2,499; Oxford, 1,12O. l Total, 12, 590, against 9,25S. With the ex- ception of Newtown and Huntington, none of them have any substantial growth since the war, and all but one of them are nearer | Bridgeport to-day by rail than they will be | LO NO" 44otoA II Iuo cAIous4OA AS
 eff any of the people or merchants of New Haven have advocated the selling of the Derby for less than its cash value for the sake of the trade of that small population, rather than to cultivate closer connections with five times that population in the Naugatuck valley, which is grow ing and prospering all the time, it lends another illustration of the fable of the dog who is crossing brook saw in the brook his shadow and lost his bone to fight a supposedly strange dog.
 'The figures I have given you are taken from the latest reports made by the railroads have mentioned to the railroad commis- sioners, and the mileage distances are those that railroads themselves give.
 Another point which some people have not taken into consideration is this: I've heard it put that MT. Starbuck, having pur- chased the credit claims of New Haven against the Derby road, and now as assignee of those creditors claims would have a right to bring suit against the company to pay. With the Frost and city stock he would have a'maiority and could elect his own board of directors next November, or later. And if